To the party's surprise, the undead skeletons begin to yell to one another in an alien language that seems somewhat familiar, yet still unintelligible. It would seem as if they are coordinating their attacks with one another.
Barok does his best to silence one of them as he puts his back to Ventus', but both of his blades bounce off the creature's insect-like breastplate. Nikolos moves towards the skeletons with the bows, but is surprised to find that the skeletons are somewhat stronger than he expected and he only succeeds in turning one of the bowmen, which flees. The second bowmen fires at the priest, but misses badly as he was obviously shaken by Nikolos' faith.
A fourth sword wielding skeleton arrives and attacks Barok, but the nimble rogue spins out of the way. The skeleton he was engaging previously gets lucky, though (-2 hps to Barok). Ventus has similar luck, as the first of his two attackers misses his strike, although the skeleton he had injured slices the Tallione soldier (-5 hps to Ventus). Caramip begins to play, and Ventus' attack on the skeleton he had injured connects once more due to the bard's influence. His strike severely injures his opponent, tearing off a chunk of rusted breastplate in the process (second time I've rolled a '6' for Ventus' damage, and with Caramip boosting the party the damage is getting nasty). At first the skeletal fighter seems to be relatively intact, but suddenly it screams and falls apart into a pile of splintered bones.
Danica and Connavar reach the bottom of the rope at about the same time, but the barbarian is able to move a few extra feet ahead and can move to help Ventus and Barok in the next round.
Two final skeletons appear, making seven total (8 at start minus 1 that Ventus destroyed), but these wear robes and start making intricate movements with their hands. One seems to have an slightly visible field around it, while the second has multiple images of itself walking alongside of it. Seeing the damage that Ventus just did, one casts a spell that causes Ventus to fall unconscious, leaving Barok in a bad spot to get flanked (sleep spell). The second one casts another spell, and an arrow made of acid appears and strikes Nikolos and sticks to his skin (-6 hps to Nikolos, the same next round).
Caramip decides to stay behind the meat shield, Connavar, and not mix it up in the pillars.
